


Just a Stray

by Just_Another_Day



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Softness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 09:39:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19461322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Day/pseuds/Just_Another_Day
Summary: "Aren't you just the most beautiful boy?"





	Just a Stray

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'Adopting a Pet' square of my Fluff Bingo card. Thanks to the crew on discord who humour me and gave me the idea to use this prompt in this particular way.

"Aren't you just the most beautiful boy?" Laurent said as he ran his fingers over Damen's belly. 

Nikandros was going to flat out kill Damen for putting himself in this situation, not to mention for probably increasing the risk of discovery for their entire group by doing so. Not that Nikandros would probably be surprised at all if he knew the reason _why_ ; it wasn't as if Nikandros hadn't already made his thoughts on Damen's 'obsession' with Laurent known. But Damen knew that even that understanding wouldn't stop Nikandros from at the very least giving Damen a solid earful about his unnecessary idiocy for the entirety of the next year. 

This moment was still worth all of that and more, no doubt. But even so, Damen would rather avoid dealing with that fallout later if possible. 

Damen would just have to make sure that Nikandros never had the opportunity to find out about this. Simple. (Because Damen was so good at keeping secrets from his best friend… right.)

Damen's back leg kicked of its own volition as Laurent's fingernails scritched pleasurably at his skin. His tongue lolled out of his mouth. His tail thudded rhythmically against the ground as he squirmed around happily on his back, encouraging Laurent to keep running his fingers through Damen's fur. It was ridiculous how good that felt, and how much of a difference it made that it was coming from _him_. 

"You know, with a nice shiny coat like this, it's hard to believe you're actually a stray," Laurent remarked softly. "Did you just slip out of your collar? I suppose we'll have to see if you have a microchip when we go to the vet."

Damen's tail stopped wagging. He couldn't go anywhere near a vet. Sure, shapeshifters looked enough like regular dogs that Damen could pass quite well to most people's eyes. Even apparently when it came to someone like Laurent, who had turned out to be a hundred times more enthusiastically interested in animals than Damen had ever seen him act towards people, with the sole exception of his brother. But a vet would surely be _very_ puzzled by at least a few things if they properly examined him in his dog form. Damen couldn't risk that, even to spend more time this close to Laurent. It wasn't just his own safety on the line if anything about _that_ secret got out, after all.

"Hey, don't worry. I have no intention of just abandoning you with the vet if it turns out you don't have an owner after all. I just don't want to steal you from some poor child who's out desperately looking for his little puppy either." 

Damen would have frowned at that if he were in human form. Even like this, he solidly outweighed Laurent. In what universe could he be considered a 'little puppy'?

Laurent sighed. "Not that you can actually understand a word I'm saying anyway. Look at me, acting like this is an actual conversation. Maybe this is a sign that Auguste's right when he says that I need to talk to actual people more often."

Damen would second that. He definitely supported Laurent being more open to interacting with people. He was, in fact, borderline desperate for Laurent to deign to direct more than a single clipped dismissal towards him. If it weren't for how Laurent just glared at Damen every time he tried to approach Laurent's cubicle at work, or snapped at him when Damen started tried to speak in Laurent's direction, then they wouldn't be in this position. In that case, Damen wouldn't have been so surprised by Laurent paying him actual positive attention when Laurent ran into Damen trotting down the street as a dog. Damen wouldn't have been shocked into willingly (stupidly) letting Laurent guide Damen back to his apartment with him. Damen would have had enough resistance built up to Laurent to deny himself.

Maybe. 

Yeah, on second thought, probably not. Damen couldn't imagine there being any man alive who could refuse when Laurent was urging them to follow him home, even if this wasn't _precisely_ what Damen might ideally want from such an invitation, given the choice.

Laurent didn't have any dog food on hand, so he fed Damen what looked and smelled to be a perfectly good steak. Laurent had probably intended it for his own dinner. The selfless kindness of it, coming from Laurent, was overwhelming. As if Damen's heart needed any more incentive to be sent racing in this man's presence. As if his sharp wit and high standards and incomparable appearance hadn't already sealed that deal months ago.

Damen really had no idea what he thought he was doing here. Obviously, this wasn't going to help at all in his quest to get closer to Laurent, because Laurent could never know that the dog he'd been nice enough to 'rescue' from the street had actually been Damen. And Damen couldn't stay here as he was, just enjoying letting Laurent pamper him as a pet for a while. As much as he'd like more time to observe Laurent unguarded like this, he supposed that wouldn't really be fair (though it was hard to convince himself of as much). And Damen did have human commitments like work, among other things, that he couldn't just miss.

But now that he was here, it was going to be difficult for Damen to slip away without Laurent noticing, at least until Laurent left the house for a while. It wasn't like Damen could risk transforming back into a human so that he could open the front door for himself just like that. He couldn't imagine it would go down well if Laurent caught Damen – very human and _very_ naked from having just temporarily transformed back – breaking out of his apartment before shifting back into a dog so that he could bolt for it. And alternatively, Damen's paws weren't exactly door-knob-friendly.

Also, wouldn't Laurent wonder what had happened if the dog he'd gone out of his way to take in just disappeared, like magic? 

Laurent smiled broadly at him when Damen butted his nose against Laurent's palm, and actually _laughed_ when Damen licked at the salty skin there. Damen imagined that smile transitioning into a troubled frown, and it being Damen's fault.

Well obviously Damen couldn't stick around forever and just let Laurent actually adopt him as a pet or anything so ridiculous (or ridiculously tempting. But Damen could still stay a _little_ bit longer. That couldn't make things any worse than they already were, and it would be safer to wait for a better time. Right?

Right.

And if Damen might get a few more belly rubs out of the deal, not to mention some more fond smiling from Laurent, then that still really wasn't the point at all.


End file.
